S. Samuel
As tensions boil between Drake and Kendrick Lamar over last summer's hard-hitting "Control" anthem, G.O.O.D Music's Pusha T has addressed the controversy and downplayed its seriousness.
While handfuls of artists took offense and released responses, Pusha defended not stepping up and catching feelings.
“I’m different. I look at confrontation differently, and I look at disrespect differently, and I don’t think Kendrick disrespected me at all. ‘Control’ was a competitive verse and it was a verse of relevance and it let people know who was on Kendrick’s radar, and there’s nothing wrong with being on Kendrick’s radar or him being on mine. Rap has always been competitive. Then you just have to look at where I’m coming from, I don’t think it’s arguable. I put out the hardest records that have made people jump out windows with ‘Exodus’ and things like that. The Kendrick verse was about sport. I don’t think there’s nothing wrong with that.” (HNHH)
After mounted speculation, a teaser of K. Dot’s BET Cypher rhymes surfaced online this week and showed him going directly at Young Money’s Drake.
The 2013 BET Hip-Hop Awards were taped in Atlanta last weekend, and will air on the network in two weeks. One of the most talked about moments during the annual show came from the always entertaining cyphers. TDE shook things up with a lineup of Jay Rock, ScHoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, newest signee Isaiah Rashad, and Kendrick Lamar. With his “Control” verse still a hot topic months later, Kendrick used his camera time to cleverly send a jab at Drake. Over Mobb Deep’s “Shook Ones Part. II,” Kendrick raps from a spectators angle using Drizzy’s Nothing Was the Same album title as a base for his verbal attack. “Yeah…and nothing’s been the same since they dropped “Control”/ And tucked a sensitive rapper back in his Pajama Clothes/ Ha-ha jokes on you, high-five…..I’m bulletproof/ Your sh*ts a never penetrate, pin the tail on the donkey boy you been a fake….” Catch the full cypher during the 2013 BET Hip-Hop Awards when it airs on Tuesday, October 15 at 8 p.m. EST. (Miss Info TV)
Recently, Cash Money Records boss Baby downplayed the likelihood of the Young Money stud targeting him on his new “The Language” track.
Baby heard the speculation, but he doesn’t think that Kendrick was Drake’s intended target. “Drake do what he do. He really slick with whatever he do. He makes you think. But I didn’t think he put no energy into that,” he said on Wednesday (September 25) when he appeared on “RapFix Live.” “Kendrick the homey, I ain’t got nothin’ but love and respect for Kendrick. Top Dawg is one of my best friends, so I would never want to see us condone that,” Birdman said acknowledging TDE’s CEO. “That ain’t what this about.” (MTV)
Drake recently shared some thoughts on the buzz Kendrick ignited and why his main objective did not make sense to him.
“That [‘Control’] verse was a moment to talk about. Are you listening to it now, though?,” he asked, hushing all 850 attendees at NYU’s Skirball Center, including Wilson. Drake continued: “He didn’t come in there on some wild, ‘I’m in New York, fuck everybody.’ I almost wish he had come in there on that shit because I kind of lost a little bit of respect for the sentiment of the verse,” Drake said. “If it’s really ‘fuck everybody’ then it needs to be ‘fuck everybody’. It can’t just be halfway.” (Miss Info TV)
In a recently released Billboard cover story, the Toronto native downplayed Lamar’s line about murdering him lyrically.
“It just sounded like an ambitious thought to me. That’s all it was. I know good and well that Kendrick’s not murdering me, at all, in any platform. So when that day presents itself, I guess we can revisit the topic.” (Billboard)
Check out Pusha T’s interview:
